Hot on the heels of a survey of British parents, Parenting Magazine and the National Education Association have announced the results of a survey of U.S. parents and teachers.
You can read a full summary at Survey finds parent-teacher relationships strong–Teachers given grade of “A.”
Here’s how it begins:
Parenting magazine and the National Education Association today announced the results of a groundbreaking joint survey* of 1,000 public school parents and educators that explored the roadblocks to effective parent-teacher communication. When parents were asked to “grade” their relationship with their child’s teachers, nearly half (45 percent) gave the teachers an “A,” with the majority on both sides categorizing the relationship as “great” and “open.”
Despite the strong relationships, the survey revealed that the two sides differ on some key issues. Sixty-eight percent of teachers reported difficulty in dealing with parents. A similar percentage of parents–63 percent–reported they’d never had difficulty with teachers. More than one-quarter of parents stated their biggest challenge has been teachers’ perceived lack of understanding for their concerns, while one in three teachers cited parents’ lack of understanding of their child’s issues as their biggest challenge.
My own feeling is that the best way to promote parent-teacher harmony, which plays a vital role in facilitating children’s education, is to start by making sure that the boundaries between home and school are clear. I think we run into the most problems when parents are overly concerned about what happens in the classroom and teachers are overly concerned about what happens in the home. Voluntary partnerships are the ones that work best. That is why I consider it so important to have homework reform. It is not just whether or not homework has value, but how much authority teachers should have for behaviors that take place in the home. I favor teachers having the freedom to assign, but parents having the authority to make the final decision (without severe grade consequence) for what goes on in the home. http://www.thehomeworktrap.com.
If you are looking for Best Practices for building relationship between parents and teachers please check out http://www.21st.parent.com ” Best Practices”. 600 parents of children of color participated in focus group to come up with Suggestions and ideas how schools and staff can make more welcome enviroment that engage building trust and relationship. http://www.21stparent.com
Mary Johnson
Parent-U-Turn
http://www.21stparent.com